Name Awesome

Calum

#799 in 2025Boys' name

Dove

Calum has been given to 3,506 babies in the U.S. since 1978. In 2025 it ranked #799 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 313 recorded.

Babies named Calum, 2025

1 in 10,600

Calum over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Calum: meaning, origin, and history

Dove

Scottish Gaelic and Latin

What Calum means

Calum means “dove”, associated with Columba.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Scottish Gaelic Calum, from Late Latin Columba (literally “dove”), the name of a sixth century Scottish saint, one of the patron saints of Scotland. Doublet of Colm.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Calum (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Calum is used in English and Scottish Gaelic. Its origins include Scottish Gaelic and Latin.

Calum comes through Scottish Gaelic Calum and Late Latin Columba.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Colm.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Scottish Gaelic, Calum is pronounced /ˈkʰal̪ˠəm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,506 boys were recorded with the name Calum between 1978 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 313 in 2025; its best national rank was #799 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #929 in 2020 to #799 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,914 in 2015 to #799 in 2025.

How common is Calum?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 10,600
313 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 5,460
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#799
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
7,343 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Calum sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 7,343 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Calum. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Calums were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Calum was born before 2019 — so the typical Calum is around 6 today.

Median birth year
2019
About 6 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
47.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
89.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
3,506
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 47.4% of all recorded uses (1,661).

Is Calum rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+105
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+130
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,115
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
4.12×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (313)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#799
2025

Spellings of Calum

Calum is not the most common spelling — Caleb is, with 80.2% against Calum's 0.87%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Calum is used

Across 2016–2025, Calum was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 2,174 boys, against 1 in 7,788 across all states with data. It was least common in Louisiana (1 in 33,333).

346 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 2,174
  2. 2Wisconsin1 in 3,571
  3. 3Minnesota1 in 3,704
  4. 4Ohio1 in 4,000
  5. 5Washington1 in 4,348
  6. 6Michigan1 in 4,762
  7. 7Indiana1 in 5,000
  8. 8Iowa1 in 5,263

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Calum around the world

Where Calum ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #178
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2024
    #339
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    1992–2025
    #432
    in 2025
  • France
    2002–2021
    #6,737
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #886
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1969–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Calum

People whose public names include Calum, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Calum in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Calum. Linked forms have their own page here.

CalCallum

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Calum by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#799
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 130
Best rank ever
#799
2025
Peak year
2025
313 that year
First recorded
1978
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,506
Count in 2025
313

Names similar to Calum

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CallumCalenCalinCalderCalanCalixCalobCaleCallenCallanCalemCalvertCalCalilCallahanCalelCaliCalyxCalianCalibKalumCalixtoCaelumCalab

Names with a curve like Calum

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Calum, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DamirKhaiSevenAspenOsirisRemiDakariTeoEverestAzaelZakaiColeson

Sibling names for Calum

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Calum

Top names of 2025, Calum's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Boys' names starting with C